Monday, May 21, 2012

For Poppy's 5th birthday, we wanted to have a party where we could invite all of her cousins and family friends, and let her invite a few friends of her own as well. And she requested that we have her party at one of her all-time favorite places in the world - the playground.

After weeks of planning and days of weather watching, the day of Poppy's party finally arrived...

We brought lots of picnic blankets and balloons. The army showed up to do drills (which was pretty exciting for all of the kids to watch) right behind our party. There was also a group of jugglers meeting on the other side of our party! Good thing I didn't go to the trouble of hiring entertainment!

We had pb&j sandwiches for the kids, subs for the adults, korean dumplings (of course!) and chips and fruit so that it felt like you were at the park having a picnic...

65 cupcakes, a bunch of enthusiastic singers and Poppy in her glory...

Then it was time for the pinata...

I love watching all the kids scramble to grab as much candy as possible once the pinata breaks open...

Poppy opened her gifts as our guests were getting ready to go. Even though it's blurry, I just love this picture of Poppy and Ava hugging goodbye...

We were so lucky the weather turned out to be beautiful that day (or else we would have had 40+ people crammed into our house!) and everyone had fun at the party. Poppy says it was her favorite party ever (and I think it might have been my favorite too).

Thursday, May 17, 2012

We've had a crazy and hectic couple of weeks around here. I was planning on doing individual posts for each event, but well, you get a photo dump instead. Here we go...

My birthday started with breakfast in bed. This was a first for Sam and I think he could get used to living like this...

and we finished celebrating my birthday at Shogun. Sam did not take his eyes off the hibachi chef for 1 second....

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Poppy's end of the year piano recital...

She played "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" and she did such a great job! We are sooo proud of her...

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Poppy had her first ever soccer game! She is loving soccer this year...

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Her last day as a 4 year old. I begged her to not turn 5, but she refused. She said we can always pretend she's still 4...

This is what I got when I asked her to smile for the camera...

Strawberry ice cream cone cupcakes to take to school for her birthday...

Her birthday lunch was a sprinkle sandwich (which she loved, of course!)...

And then we had Marc's family over for a Korean dinner followed by birthday cake...

She could not believe I put real suckers on her cake. She barely took a bite of her cake, went straight for the suckers and then told everyone all night "They're real suckers, ya know. Really, they're real. You can eat them!"

Sammy enjoyed his sucker too...

and Poppy even played a few songs for everyone at her party...

One of the favorite gifts- the book that goes along with the Arietty movie (which was sooo good, btw)...

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In addition to non-stop partying lately, Marc has been building a treehouse/playset in our backyard. Everyone is sooo excited about this...

Both Poppy and Sam are quite the helpers...

It's going to be so cute when it's done - I can't wait!

Speaking of being so cute, I could just watch these two play together all day. Today they were pretending Sam was the doctor and Poppy was the doll's mommy...

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Happy mother's day! Hope everyone had a wonderful day. Mine was filled with family time and relaxing...

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

I'm not sure what's up with my blogging funk lately. Sometimes I think it's time to throw in the towel and call it quits, but then I remember why I blog in the first place. I do it for the memories and to have something that Poppy and Sam can look through to remind them of all the fun things we do together.

Just tonight we went for a quick trip to the playground. As I was walking out the door, I thought to myself that I should grab the camera. Then I thought- don't bother, we're only going for a few minutes. But I grabbed it anyways and I was so glad I did. It's not that I took any award-winning pictures, but I want to remember every trip to the playground, and pictures help me remember.

After we put the kids to bed tonight Marc and I started talking about how fast time flies and before we know it we are going to be our parents age and Poppy and Sam will be starting their own families. Time flies by. But pictures help keep the memories strong. So I will try to take more pictures and I will continue to blog.

Here's what we've been up to lately...

Poppy's school held an art gala. Our proud artist showing off her work (it's the picture in between Marc and Poppy and she said it's a picture of a carnival. Duh!)...

Fishing with cousins...

Poppy had the first catch of the day...

Sammy thought it was so cool to hold Poppy's fish...

Our trip to the playground tonight...

playing hide-and-go-seek in the rose gardens...

Daddy being a goofball...

Oh, and just wait - once I go back to work (and start bringing home a paycheck!!!) I'm going to get an iphone (yes, I might be the last person in the world without a smartphone) and one of those new super small DSLRish cameras and I'm going to take sooo many pictures! Just wait!!!